Griffin's 10-month progress report

yesterday, griffin turned 10 months old. here's a pic from last night.

so what's the deal with the earflap hat, you ask? it's not snowing in sf these days, is it? no, the little guy just has an itchy ear. the dr. says it's seborrhea, which is the same as cradle cap. he's been scratching and scratching, and we find him in the morning with very bloody sheets. pretty scary.

what about clipping his nails, you ask? i do, but they grow so damn fast. mitts? yes, we do mitts, but the little bugger has figured out how to pull them off by biting the mitt and pulling his hand out. which brings us back to the earflap hat. we put this on him, and it largely discourages him from scratching the ear too much. this is night 3 with the hat, and the ear does seem to be finally healing.

here's some other updates.

* eating -- when we started griffin on solids about a month back, he decided that solids are much better than the icky alimentum we were feeding him, so he totally cut back on formula and would refuse to drink more than 2 oz at a time (vs 6 oz previously). unfortunately, his silly parents didn't realize that they subsequently needed either to up his solid intake or increase the frequency of his formula meals. after his 9 month checkup, we realized (with the doctor's help :) ) that we hadn't been giving him enough calories, and we upped his solids and formula feedings, and he gained 1 pound in 3 weeks. hooray! as for his allergies, we're doing pretty well, and he's eating all fruits, meats, and lots of veggies. still no eggs or dairy, and we're getting ready to try soy, wheat, and corn.

* physical stuff -- he can scoot backwards and in circles (pivoting), but isn't up on all fours yet. sits like a champ, can clap on demand (pai-pai-sho), and loves playing with toys (especially banging stuff together). oh, and he reached another big milestone today: he can feed himself cheerios (technically, morning-o's)!!!


* verbal stuff -- he says "dada" and "baba" and makes "old man noises", as his daycare teachers like to call them. babbles incessently, and likes to yell. he's definitely a yim!

ally is still doing great with her "di-di". she tells everyone he's "my baby" and is very protective (and sometimes possessive) of him. occasionally, she'll assert, "that's my toy" when we give griffin one of her old toys, but then she will always proudly follow it up with "but i'm sharing with di-di!" she is such a great big sister, and we are very proud of her!

A Visit from Eva Gu-Ma and Family

so we had a lovely visit from edward's sister (eva), her husband (cy), and their 2 kids (jason and janice).

it was nice to spend time with them again. we hadn't seen cy or jason in over 4 years, and it was really the first time we've gotten to spend so much time together with just the 2 families.

ally and janice had a blast with each other, playing make-believe games, playing with toys, pretending to be dogs, and generally being silly together. at one point, they must have overheard us talking about santa cruz, because then we heard them giggling and yelling to each other, "no, it's _my_ santa cruz!" so they seemed to think they each _had_ a santa cruz, which was rather odd. this time, they really figured out how to play together, and ally really looked up to her big sister, "janice je-je". ally would often try to copy janice, and it was pretty funny to hear ally echoing janice in cantonese!




so we rented a place in aptos for a few days, and we spent some time relaxing and visiting in the monterey bay area. the kids had fun at the aquarium. ally sat and stared at the giant tank for a long time, and was delighted to see the sunfish again. the girls had a great time at the crashing wave exhibit, and i could hear their squeals and shrieks of delight halfway across the aquarium.


we also hit the santa cruz boardwalk, walked around downtown santa cruz, shopped at gilroy, and generally tried to relax. it was a generally relaxing mini-vacation for us, except that i had to work for a couple days of it.

as for eva and family's visit as a whole, i think it was "ok-lah" (as eva likes to say). sure, san francisco isn't exotic or maybe even that interesting if you've been here before. but, as eva was quick to point out, that wasn't why they were here. they were here to see us and the kids. and from that aspect, i think the trip went really well. in fact, every time we see eva and her family, i feel that we grow a little closer. for me, i feel like i am getting to know them a little better each time, and with that, i feel a little closer to them. it's hard since we only get to the see each every few years, but it does feel more and more like family. we do seem to be learning to understand and maybe even appreciate each other's culture and way of life. it's so easy to forget that not everyone shares the same value system that you do, and that not everyone wants to live where you live, eat what you eat, do what you do for fun, etc.

maybe we're also just bonding more over the kids. while it's harder to learn to love each other as adults, it's just so easy to love each other's kids. janice is such a wonderful and sweet little girl, and jason is quirky but still very lovable in his own way. and watching ally's face light up whenever she sees her cousins or her beloved gu-ma and gu-cheung really just makes me want to give her more opportunities to be with her family.

i always felt so lucky to have 20+ cousins. ally and griffin only have 5, and i want them to be as close with all of them as i was with mine.